Lately, a three-dimensional (3D) display has been receiving greater attention. In order to produce and display a realistic 3D image, it may be necessary to obtain a large number of different viewpoint images. However, it is difficult to obtain different viewpoint images sufficient to produce a high quality 3D image due to limitations such as a bandwidth of a transmission channel. Accordingly, an intermediate virtual viewpoint image may be synthesized using at least one obtained viewpoint image. The intermediate virtual viewpoint image may be displayed with the obtained viewpoint images to produce a realistic 3D image from any viewpoint of a viewer. Such a technology has been referred to as view synthesis.
A typical 3D video system produces a 3D image mostly by using a depth image such as a depth map. Such a 3D video system may obtain a depth map of each viewpoint image and camera parameters as supplementary input data when obtaining images each having a different viewpoint. A typical 3D video system uses the supplementary input data including the depth map and the camera parameters to synthesize an intermediate virtual viewpoint image.
The intermediate virtual viewpoint image, synthesized by the typical 3D video system, may have a hole-region. The hole-region may be an occluded region that is newly revealed in the intermediate virtual viewpoint image when the intermediate virtual viewpoint image is synthesized using obtained different viewpoint images. Such a hole-region deteriorates a 3D image quality.